Event: 2-15-2025
Article posted: 2-17-2025
Author: Joshua Janusiak
I won’t hesitate to say that Book Across the Bay is one of the most incredible and otherworldly community events to grace the shores of Lake Superior. Held on the Chequamegon Bay, this scenic 6-mile trek across the ice never fails to bring the community together with nature in the frigid month of February. While the physical trek across the bay was forced into cancellation for the first time in its 28-year history due to safety concerns (a whiteout blizzard with high winds, low visibility, and low temperatures), the weather gave the attendees, volunteers, sponsors, community members, and the city of Ashland an opportunity to demonstrate their quick thinking and spirited resourcefulness when things don’t go as planned. As I have only booked across the bay once before, I didn’t know what to expect. It turned out that the experience still provided a beautiful and humbling spectacle of nature, and the event still more than justified the intense 10.5-hour drive to Ashland from Iowa City in the whiteout conditions. The route was supposed to take exactly 7 hours, but my partner and I still drove as fast as safely possible through rural highways completely inundated with snow, at times going hours without seeing another vehicle or person.
Notifications of the trek’s cancellation were sent out just a few hours before the official start. Even the mystical, handmade ice luminaries lining the route were covered by snow, and it was clear that it would simply be too dangerous to attempt the feat. Our group was at the registration area chatting with friendly volunteers, drinking beer, and browsing through the exquisite handcrafted products made by local vendors (including some awesome people from Sweet Fern Apothecary and Van Low Family Farm) when we heard the announcement in person. While there were some feelings of disappointment, it was quickly replaced with the creative mobilization and positive energy of all those involved to keep the celebration going and put the back-up plan in place. The event organizers declared that “The show must go on!” and notified all of the trekkers that there would still be a fun celebration including live music, dancing, food trucks, beverages, and apparel. Aside from the stunning view of the snow-covered lake, there were still enormous bonfires and a massive glass sauna available to use for a very reasonable fee (hosted by Superior Sauna & Steam).
Since this event was a bit like a family and friend reunion for our group (being busy people who live in different places), we reserved the sauna for an hour later on in the night. We went back to the Airbnb for some warm home-cooked food and naughty drinks, napped, and played some high-energy card games while enjoying each other’s company and the cozy atmosphere.
When we returned to the giant registration/party tent back at the lake, there were a ton of people enjoying the winter festival. It was time for the sauna! Guided by the very friendly staff and friends of those working with Superior Saunas, we changed in the heated tent and sprinted into the sauna and out of the cold. Our hour was wonderful and quite resetting. We had endless hilarious conversations while admiring the winter scene, and we deeply inhaled the slightly birch-scented steam that our host poured over the rocks with a ladle. Some of us even ran out to roll around on the snowbanks with our bare skin a few times!
Once we were done with our sauna experience, we changed back into our normal clothes feeling refreshed. We checked out the meditative bonfires and talked for a bit, then rallied to party for a bit in the tent. The main tent was a jubilant atmosphere full of people. There was amazing live music that included a wide variety of great songs, volunteers working hard, and vendors selling delicious (and cost-effective!) food that was homemade on the spot. There was even an elaborate costume contest going on. We enjoyed the music and the atmosphere, bought t-shirts, talked to other attendees, and danced. As it was getting late, we got one final order of deep-fried ravioli from a food truck and headed back to the Airbnb to hang out before bed. It was a day filled with twists and turns, but not the kind one might expect to find when signing up for a ‘race’!
On our day of departure the day after the event, we stopped by our family’s property in Glidden, Wisconsin. This ‘up north’ is an absolute natural treasure, teeming with diverse wildlife and incredible nature, which my family studies, respects, and deeply cares for. We went on an hourlong hike, narrated and guided by my studious family (especially my brother Jayden, who specializes in environmental and wildlife studies). I was surprised to find many treasures hiding within the snowy forest, including many polypores and various mushrooms attached to the trees such as the gorgeous tinder fungus (found in the possessions of the 5,000-year-old Ötzi the Iceman), a Frullania liverwort (an epiphyte that grows on tree bark without harming the trees), and other various lichens and plants. While we may not have been able to book across the Chequamegon Bay, we were still able to brave the cold and appreciate the grandeur of nature in our own way.
Everyone that we encountered during this experience in Ashland and Glidden was sociable, kind, thoughtful, and fun. It was such a wonderful way to connect with a community that values nature, to spend time with family and friends, and to be immersed in such a celebration. Furthermore, it’s great to know that if the trek ever gets cancelled again (although I’m crossing my fingers that it won’t!), the Book Across the Bay experience will still be more than worth the trip.
P.S.
Our natural environment is a beautiful, intricate web of life that simultaneously serves us and provides us with better lives while still being more powerful than us. It should be respected. We should stop trying to manipulate it to serve our materialistic and petty human purposes, and instead be grateful for it and learn to work with it and learn about it to get what we need from it without hurting this planet. Our political climate at this time is far from being even remotely respectful to this MOST important resource, and our passivity towards the selfish destruction, capitalism, and materialism that is plaguing our nation absolutely must stop. Take action, use your voice, and be the change you want to see!
Thanks for reading!